ASQC Minutes 23 October 2019

Minutes of the meeting of the Cardiff University Academic Standards and Quality Committee (ASQC) held on Wednesday 23 October 2019 in committee room 2, Glamorgan Building, at 9:30.

Present: Professor Amanda Coffey (Chair); Mr Tomos Evans; Mr Nick Fox; Dr Kate Gilliver; Dr Robert Gossedge; Dr Julie Gwilliam; Professor Martin Jephcote; Professor Dai John; Professor; Dr Emma Kidd; Professor Alan Kwan (vice Dr Andrew Roberts); Ms Shekina Ortom; Dr Ryan Prout; Professor Helen Williams; Dr Robert Wilson.

In attendance: Ms Sian Ballard; Ms Hannah Darnley; Mrs Kath Evans; Mr Rhodri Evans (Secretary); Ms Tracey Evans; Mrs Lindsey Jones; Ms Tracey Stanley; Ms Amy Starling; Ms Martine Woodward; Mr Simon Wright.

Apologies: Professor Barbara Chadwick; Professor Stuart Palmer; Dr Rhys Pullin; Dr Andrew Roberts.

The Chair welcomed new members attending their first meeting of the Committee.

1228 Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting of the Academic Standards and Quality Committee held on 5 June 2019 (paper 18/626) were confirmed as a true record.

1229 Matters Arising

Received and considered paper 19/102, 'Matters Arising'.

Arising there from:

1229.1 Review of Regulations (Minute 1218)

Noted

.1 that Senate, at its meeting on 19 June 2019, approved the proposed regulations, policies and procedures subject to some amendments, including ensuring there is an appropriate equality impact assessment undertaken;
.2 the substantive changes to regulations had been communicated to schools via a circular in July 2019 and a series of staff briefing sessions had been held in September and October 2019 to support their implementation;
.3 the regulations, policies and procedures had been published on the University’s website in August 2019.

1229.2 Annual Review and Enhancement (ARE) (Minute 1219)

Noted

.1 the College Deans, supported by the College Education Managers and staff from Registry, were developing an advice and guidance document for staff in schools to provide further clarity on the revised ARE process;
.2 the ARE advice and guidance document would be reviewed and confirmed by the Chair prior to its circulation to staff and members of ASQC;
.3 that the new ARE process would be reviewed before the end of the session.

1229.3 Contextual Admissions Policy (Minute 1220)

Noted that Senate, at its meeting on 19 June 2019, approved the Contextual Admissions Policy.

1229.4 Other Matters Arising

Noted that other matters arising would be considered elsewhere on the agenda:
.1 Audit of ASQC actions (Minute 1216.1)
See Minute 1241.
.2 QER (Minute 1216.3)
See Minute 1232.

1230 Constitution and Membership

1230.1 Academic Standards and Quality Committee

Received and noted paper 19/103, ‘Academic Standards and Quality Committee: Constitution and Membership Session 2019-20’.

Further noted the following updates to the membership:
.1 the new student members: Ms Shekina Ortom; Mr Nick Fox; and Mr Tomos Evans;
.2 Dr Robert Gossedge as the College Dean (Postgraduate) in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences;
.3 the re-appointment by Council of Professor Stuart Palmer;
.4 the re-appointment by Senate of Dr Kate Gilliver (SHARE).

1230.2 Sub-Committees of Academic Standards and Quality Committee

Received and considered paper 19/104, ‘Terms of Reference and Membership of Sub-Committees of Academic Standards and Quality Committee: Session 2019-20’.

Noted

.1 an update to the staff and student membership of the Programme and Partner Standing Panel and that a further three vacancies remained to be filled by student members;
.2 that the terms of reference and frequency of meetings of the College Annual Review and Enhancement Committee had been updated to reflect the changes to the ARE process.

1231 Annual Quality Report

Received and considered paper 19/105, ‘Annual Quality Report’.

Noted

1231.1 the annual quality report provided a holistic overview of the University’s academic quality management systems operating in the 2018/19 academic session, and a risk assessment status and narrative for each area of activity;

1231.2 that ASQC received a draft quality report for members’ input and comment and that a full and updated report would be considered by Senate, at its next meeting, before being presented to Council;

1231.3 that two areas are highlighted with a ‘red’ risk status signifying issues of concern: assessment and feedback; and Student Cases; and that actions had been identified to address the issues;

1231.4  that the report identified improvements had been made in a number of areas:

• Collaborative Provision and Periodic Review risks lowered from ‘amber’ to ‘green’;
• Examination Paper Errors risk lowered from ‘red’ to ‘amber’, recognising the significant collaborative work undertaken by staff in Registry and Schools to find solutions, facilitated through a Rapid Improvement Event;

1231.5 that the risks for three areas: Academic Regulations; Annual Review and Enhancement; and Programme Approval; remained at ‘amber’ despite actions to develop and update regulations, policies and processes, because implementation was scheduled for 2019-20 and, therefore, the outcomes are yet to be determined;

1231.6 that the Committee advised that further information should be provided relating to the OIA’s annual statement, which recognises the University’s positive engagement with the OIA as this was an important point of reference when addressing the identified issues resulting in a ‘red’ risk assessment status;

1231.7 the Committee requested that, in future reports, additional information should be included in the ‘Release of Results’ section, to include a review of any errors in the results published.
Resolved

1231.8 to endorse the report and, subject to amendments to take account of members’ comments, the report be submitted to Senate;

1231.9 to recommend to Senate and Council that the University:
.1 can continue to have confidence in all quality management policies and processes operated during the 2018-19 session;
.2 can continue to have confidence that the standards of awards have been appropriately set and maintained; and
.3 has identified key quality enhancement activities and actions for the 2019-20 session which address identified risks.

1232 Quality Enhancement Review (QER)

Received and considered paper 19/106 ‘Quality Enhancement Review update’.

Noted

1232.1 that the University will be subject to a Quality Enhancement Review (QER), conducted by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in March 2020 and the paper provided an overview of the actions being taken to engage with key stakeholders;

1232.2 that on 19 July 2019, HEFCW issued a circular (W19/23HE) confirming that, with effect from January 2020, only relevant baseline requirements would be addressed, and incorporating the new Wales-only elements of the baseline. HEFCW recognised that it had other processes, alongside QER, to address baseline requirements and therefore does not wish to duplicate activity in QER;

1232.3 that the QAA had confirmed the membership of the review team and the QAA Officer who will co-ordinate and act as the primary point of contact with the University;

1232.4 that a range of staff have been identified to review the University’s submissions and to help shape and refine the final submissions.  Colleagues will also be asked to provide an assurance that the submissions meet the expectations of the QER process and are appropriate for submission;

1232.5 that there would be an opportunity for ASQC members to scrutinise the draft submissions to ensure they are self-evaluative and evidence-based, demonstrate the approach taken by the University manage the quality and standards of its academic provision, and the approach taken to quality enhancement and student engagement;

1232.6 that a mock review exercise had been arranged for 9/10 December 2019 to identify the issues which could be raised during the Review Team’s visit, and to support staff likely to be invited to meet with the Review Team to better understand the purpose of the review and the matters which could be addressed.

1233 Programme Development

Received and considered paper 19/107, ‘Programme Development Policy’.

Noted

1233.1 that Rapid Improvement Events (RIE) were held in April and May 2019 to review the programme approval process.  The events brought together the collective experience and expertise of school and central professional services staff, academic colleagues and students to undertake a detailed review of the full end-to-end process;

1233.2 that members of the RIE identified that there was a clear need to align the process of portfolio development to the University KPI’s, provide more professional and expert support for academics through the developmental stages, and improve our timescales to be more agile and to allow maximum exposure in the recruitment cycle;

1233.3 that over the course of the RIE, academic and professional service colleagues worked together to begin to scope out a simpler and more strategic process, and to develop a new approach which focused on clear prioritisation, high quality support for programme development and a streamlined and more timely approval process under four separate work streams:

• Work stream 1: Strategic Approach to Portfolio Development for new programmes
• Work stream 2: Market information and intelligence gathering
• Work stream 3: Support for programme development
• Work stream 4: Changes to current programmes and public information requirements

1233.4 Work stream 1 and 2 reviewed the current Stage 1 of the Programme Approval policy, where decisions were at College level to determine the programme proposals to progress to the next stage of the approval process;

1233.5 that whilst it was recognised that there needed to be a University-wide body which would receive and prioritise the College recommendations, members expressed reservations regarding the proposal for a revised Stage 1 process as detailed in paper 19/107, and that further discussion should take place and clarification provided before ASQC could recommend a new process to Senate;

1233.6 that work stream 3 identified the greatest need for investment to ensure that more time was invested during the programme development phase to improve the quality of programmes being put forward for academic approval, thus minimising high numbers of conditions, and was welcomed by members;

1233.7 that the inclusion of the principles of programme, structure, design and delivery and CESI workshops was a positive aspect of the revised process;

1233.8 that currently a high number of proposals to change programmes are required to be considered under the central University change process, and members welcomed the proposal to change the public information requirements and consequently Boards of Studies/School Boards would be permitted to have higher thresholds of change.

Resolved

1233.9 that a further consultation should be undertaken on the revised approach to Stage 1, strategic approval, prior to the reconsideration of the policy by ASQC.

1234 Governance of Programme Information: Update

Received and considered paper 19/108, ‘Governance Protocols for Managing Programme Information in SIMS and Coursefinder’.

Noted

1234.1 that in October 2015, ASQC endorsed the proposal for SIMS to be the single source of programme and module Information for the University and established a Task and Finish Group to oversee the CMA compliance actions taking place in preparation for the application of the Consumer Rights Act to the higher education sector and to establish protocols for future working;

1234.2 that during 2018, and following an extensive review of the processes for updating programme information and the level of programme content the University displayed compared with its competitors, a decision was made by the First Choice Steering Group to remove the marketing information from SIMS and to enable the communications officers to edit the marketing information directly in Squiz, the website’s Content Management System;

1234.3 that programme information, included within the durable medium provided to applicants, remained in SIMS, but marketing information - including distinctive features, a summary of each year of the course, learning and assessment methods, career prospects and fieldwork - was stored in the University’s website content management system, managed by College Communications staff;

1234.4 that an audit trail of changes was held in the website content management system, but as it only stores a certain amount of changes, the Digital Communications team are in the process of procuring software to capture a record of course pages as they are displayed to prospective students on a daily basis.
Resolved

1234.5 that SIMS would continue to be the definitive source of programme information used for the durable medium and any changes to this static information would be referred to the Quality and Standards team to review and where necessary, be taken through a formal change process;

1234.6 that any late changes to existing programmes would continue to be carefully monitored and minimised as it presented significant implications for both current students and applicants and required the re-issuing of the durable medium or student consultation;

1234.7 that any Coursefinder developments would take account the type and amount of information presented, and the impact requests for change by Schools may have on audit requirements.

1235 Academic Management Regulations

Received and considered paper 19/109, ‘Academic Management Regulations’.

Noted

1235.1 that the Academic Decision-Making Regulations had been revised to:

• remove duplication of information previously included but which was contained in Ordinances or other Regulations;
• propose revision to the role of Boards of Studies due to changes to the annual review process and programme approval process and which were anticipated and noted by ASQC at its last meeting (Minute 1218.9.2);
• confirm the requirement for Student Staff Panels to be established;

1235.2 members’ suggested revisions to the proposed regulations:

• to indicate that postgraduate research students should be members of postgraduate Staff Student Panels if a separate Panel was not established for postgraduate research students;
• to include a cross-reference to the Dignity at Work and Study Policy as an overarching statement in the regulation;

1235.3 that the Code of Practice on Academic Representation, a source of advice and guidance to students and staff on how Student Representation functions at the University, included information on the operation of Student Staff Panels, and was reviewed annually.

Resolved

1235.4 that subject to amendments to take account of members’ comments, to recommend to Senate that it approve the revised Academic Management regulations with immediate effect.

1236 Periodic Review

Received and considered paper 19/110, 'Periodic Review’.

Noted

1236.1 that ASQC, at its meeting on 30 January 2019, resolved, (Minute 1195.2) that the future cycle of Periodic Review is paused for two years, until 2020/21, and that there was an opportunity to evaluate and determine an appropriate periodic review process before the 2020/21 academic year which should be aligned with ARE and other processes to ensure proportionality;

1236.2 that the ARE process, which included the Survey Management Framework, ensured that the University had a robust and appropriate process for the annual review of its programmes and the outcomes ensured that schools have a plan to address significant issues and enhancements to the student experience;

1236.3 that it would no longer be proportionate to continue with a periodic review process in its previous form, which addressed the student experience and enhancement, as it would lead to duplication of activity; however, there remained a the need to ensure that the quality system retains a process to periodically review all programmes;

1236.4 that the proposed option of introducing revalidation of programmes within a defined schedule of activity was broadly welcomed by members and would provide Schools with the opportunity to ensure their portfolio of programmes continued to be fit for purpose and meet the requirements Cardiff University’s principles of programme structure, design and delivery and graduate attributes;

1236.5 that, when viewed holistically with the ARE process and the programme approval process, revalidation would encourage Schools to reduce the volume of year-on-year changes currently going through the programme approval process;

1236.6 that a specific cycle of activity would be published to ensure that programmes would be periodically reviewed; programmes which had been approved or revalidated via the programme approval process in the previous 5 years may be excluded from the cyclical revalidation process;

1236.7 that revalidation would also be able to support Schools where major changes to programmes were needed or where significant recommendations had been made by a Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body (PSRB).

Resolved

1236.8 to support the overarching principles outlined in paper 19/110 and to replace periodic review with a revalidation process;

1236.9 further work to be undertaken, supported by the College Deans, to develop a revalidation process, to be implemented in 202-21, for consideration by ASQC at a future meeting.

1237 Personal Tutor Policy

Received and considered paper 19/111 ‘Personal Tutor Policy’

Noted

1237.1 that in 2018-19, the existing Personal Tutor Code of Practice had been reviewed as part of the review of regulations and subsequently retitled a Policy;

1237.2 that the majority of expectations and practices set out in the Policy were already in effect, with no major changes to the Personal Tutor model at Cardiff;

1237.3 that a small number of additions and amendments had been made to the Policy to provide tutors and tutees with added clarity in relation to expectations, including:

• A definition for ‘Personal tutoring’ which was developed in collaboration with stakeholder groups from around the university as part of the work undertaken by the ‘Enhancing the Personal Tutoring System’ Partnership Project;
• Inclusion of a section on Confidentiality and Disclosure.

1237.4 that reference should be made to the Cardiff Academic expectations within the Policy to ensure that all staff were aware of their responsibilities;

1237.5 that students had the opportunity to make a change to their personal tutor and that it would be appropriate for a member of staff to have the opportunity to indicate if they felt unable to support a tutee and that a different member of staff be assigned to the role;

1237.6 the Personal Tutors could access relevant student information via SIMS but did not have access to other relevant sources of information on other University systems e.g. assessment feedback, and consideration should be given to reviewing Personal Tutor access to other sources of information via a dashboard approach;

1237.7 that a clear communication and implementation plan has been developed to promote the changes to the Policy.
Resolved

1237.8 subject to amendments to take account of members’ comments, to recommend to Senate that it approve the Personal Tutor Policy with immediate effect.

1238 PGR Training Policy

Received and considered paper 19/112 ‘Policy on the Induction and Training of Research Students’.

Noted

1238.1 that the Policy on the Induction and Training of Research Students was a new policy which was part of the wider review of Academic Regulations and of the series of revised policies relating specifically to postgraduate research students;

1238.2 that the policy reflected and extended the information and expectations contained within the previous Code of Practice, with regard to the provision and engagement in training and development activity for both research and professional skills;

1238.3 a new development, the expectation that all new research students, whether full-time or part-time, would be required to attend an induction event and to engage in their School’s orientation;

1238.4 that it was proposed that the policy comes into effect in the 2020-21 session, with principles being adopted as far as possible during the current academic year.

Resolved

1238.5 to recommend to Senate that it approve the Policy on the Induction and Training of Research Students with effect from 2020-21 session.

1239 Collaborative Provision for Postgraduate Research Students: Update

Received and considered paper 19/113 ‘Collaborative Provision for Postgraduate Research Students’.

Noted

1239.1 that, at its meeting in April 2018, ASQC received paper 17/457 outlining definitions of the types of collaborative arrangements at research degree level, describing the approval process for each, mirroring the approach taken to the development of new taught programmes that include collaborative provision;

1239.2 that a range of templates, forms and guidance have since been developed, and reviewed by the Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) and the College Postgraduate Deans, that form part 2 of the existing Collaborative Provision Policy.  These include:

• Statement on Cardiff University collaborative provision (postgraduate research) which supplements the Collaborative Provision Framework;
• Description of the application procedure and flowchart;
• Mapping document (degree of variance table);
• Application/approval form: stage 1, strategic approval;
• Application/approval form: stage 2, academic approval;
• Template partnership/programme agreement;
• Template individual research student agreement (IRSA).

Resolved

1239.3 that the Collaborative Provision Policy for Postgraduate Research and the accompanying templates, forms and guidance be published alongside those for taught programmes.

1240 Reports From Groups

Received and noted paper 19/114, 'Report from Programme and Partner Standing Panel’.

1241 Review of Chair’s Action

Received and considered paper 19/115, ‘Review of Chairs Action’

Noted

1241.1 that that decision making is clear and consistent, however, the documentation is inconsistent;

1241.2 that filing systems vary between teams and divisions in Academic and Student Support Services, and this made it difficult to identify decisions with numbers reported to each meeting of ASQC.

Resolved

1241.3 that a review be undertaken to create a standardised filing system across the relevant divisions to fit with the requirements of the audit process, to be reported at a future meeting of ASQC;

1241.4 that consideration be given to revising the governance framework for decision-making for the many types of decisions currently reported in executive actions;

1241.5 to thank Professor Williams for reviewing Chair’s action for both 2017-18 and 2018-19.

1242 Action Taken on behalf of the Committee

Received and noted paper 19/117, being the summary of Executive Action taken by the Chair on behalf of the Committee since the last meeting.

1243 Date of Meetings: 2019/20

Noted the dates of meetings to be held in Session 2019/20:
30 January 2020 at 10:00am
29 April 2020 at 10:00am
3 June 2020 at 10:00am